Rioters burn police station in Nigeria

2010-10-12 14:14

Gamboru - Rioters set a police station ablaze in northern Nigeria near where a radical Islamic sect operates, a police spokesperson said on Tuesday. The attack was similar to one that sparked a wave of violence last year that left more than 700 people dead.

Nigeria federal police spokesperson Emmanuel Ojukwu told The Associated Press the attack occurred sometime on Monday night or Tuesday morning in the village of Gamboru, just northeast of Maiduguri in Nigeria's Muslim north. Ojukwu said he had no immediate casualty figures.

A similar attack on a police station heralded a violent uprising by the radical Boko Haram sect in July 2009. A subsequent security crackdown led to more than 700 deaths. However, Ojukwu said he didn't know whether the sect was involved in the attack.

An Associated Press reporter heading toward the police station on Tuesday morning said he saw a strong police presence on roads heading out of Maiduguri, the city where the sect once had its main mosque. The reporter said he saw officers patting down every passer-by, checking for hidden weapons.

Authorities fear Boko Haram, which means "Western education is sacrilege" in the local Hausa language, has regrouped and rearmed since the 2009 violence. The group wants a stricter version of Islam's Shariah law in place across Nigeria.

Nigeria, a nation of 150 million people, is divided between the Christian-dominated south and the Muslim north. A dozen states across Nigeria's north already have Shariah law in place, though the area remains under the control of secular state governments.

Boko Haram's former leader died in police custody after the 2009 riot in what human rights activists described as an extrajudicial killing. A video recording released in late June showed a Boko Haram leader calling for new violence as the one-year anniversary of their attack neared.

In September, the sect launched a coordinated attack on a federal prison in Bauchi that held many of its followers arrested following last year's riot. The raid freed about 750 prisoners - many of whom were members of the sect that still remain at large.

- AP